Talents, trends and tariffs: highlights from Istanbul Fashion Connection
loading...
The eighth edition of sourcing and fashion fair Istanbul Fashion Connection (IFCO) took place from 20th to 22nd August 2025. From the onset, IFCO was conceptualised to present Turkish brands and designers to the world and leave the notion of Turkey being a mere production location behind. Slowly, the efforts seem to bear fruits, with buyers from Eastern Europe, Russia, North Africa and the Middle East being joined by those from Western Europe, the UK and the US.
“In just four years, IFCO has become a true success story in the international fashion industry. Since its launch in 2022, the fair has hosted nearly 3,000 exhibitors and welcomed 195,000 professional visitors from 165 countries across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and beyond – firmly positioning Istanbul as a dynamic hub on the global fashion calendar,” commented İHKİB vice president Mustafa Pasahan in a statement.
According to official figures, the eighth edition brought more than18,800 visitors from 114 countries to the fair, with an increase of 43 percent in international visitors or up by 29 percent compared to last August. However, the winter edition is the stronger one of the two, attracting closer to 30,000 visitors (according to the organisers) and not having to compete with the summer break and fairs like Magic Las Vegas and Collection Premiere Moscow just before and after.
Geared for networking
A dedicated B2B area in Hall 8 facilitated more than 400 meetings where 30 Turkish manufacturers and global buyers could connect, among them representatives from 76 global retail groups and fashion companies such as Asos, Next, Ssense and The Fold Limited from the UK, Coach, John Elliott and Everlane from the US, Ottolinger and Zalando from Germany, Twinset from Italy and LPP, Wittchen and Giacomo Conti from Poland, among others.
In four halls and over 25,000 square meters, more than 270 exhibitors presented their products, with Hall 2 being dedicated to womenswear, Hall 4 to denim, sportswear, leather, and womenswear as well, and Hall 8 to menswear, children’s wear, accessories and homewear.
Children’s wear, which doubled its offering at the last edition, is turning into a rising export strength for Turkey. “Having all children’s brands together is valuable. We connected with buyers from Arab countries, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the US – and already received orders during the fair,” said Hakan Aslangiri of Lovetti. “A special hall for kidswear is very important,” agreed Engin Özdemir of Cemix, which reported a strong performance.
A seminar programme accompanied the fair, giving visitors insights into market trends and innovations. Experts such as WGSN’s Tatiana Aldrich, CSO Almila Albayraktaroğlu and AI and digital transformation consultant Esra Bağdat presented practical analyses on topics such as macro trends in women's and men's fashion, e-commerce developments and applications of artificial intelligence. Fashion shows on the first and second fair day presented brands such as Parkhande, Otto Design, Rodnik Fashion, Mimya, De White’s and others.
Impressions
Apart from its main label, womenswear brand Setre presented its recently launched labels Amia & Co., which goes for a sporty look, and more elegant, luxury label Saint Amia at IFCO. The company exports its main brand Setre to 96 countries worldwide with US, Europe and North Africa being strong markets; within Europe, the Netherlands, Germany and France are major players. Though the company mainly exports its products (90 percent), the US tariffs do not affect the business as everything is done under one roof: Materials are sourced locally (about 30 to 35 percent are more sustainable) and all production is in done in Turkey, explained chairman Hikmet Ünal. In addition, the tariffs for competing countries like Cambodia, India and to some extent China are higher.
Fonem is a Turkish brand that specialises in knit accessories like beanies, scarfs, hats and gloves made from sustainable materials like hemp and wool. It started as a street venture when founder Murat Koca collected excess materials from factories, made small articles of clothing out of them and started selling them in 1995. Today, the company produces under its own label but also for private label clients, 50 percent from Europe.
Nilmark, founded in 1989, banks on timeless fashion for women. “Black is our happy colour,” explained Biril Mancilik, the brand’s second generation, the predominant colour choice. Her mother is the main designer while her sister is responsible for the younger styles.
Womenswear brand QU Style has a big showroom just about 10 minutes from the exhibition centre in Merter, home of IFC, the Istanbul Fashion Centre but its main production (yarn and knits) is done in its Black Sea factory. “Right now, everything is done here in Turkey,” explained Ömer Faruk Karadag but some of it could move to China from next year, “because of the prices”. Also, special knits are currently not possible from Turkey.
Momjeans is one of quite a few brands that produce right in Istanbul - in Merter. About 180 employees produce about 250,000 products every month - about 50 percent for the domestic market, the remaining 50 percent are exported. “The IFCO frequency tends to be less in summer and better in winter,” said representative Orhan Zeydal.
The brand also exhibits at Magic in Las Vegas and CPM in Moscow where there is more footfall in the summer and less in the winter. The biggest problem the company is currently facing is that some former international clients in Russia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon have started making their own clothes. “It took them a few years but they learned how to make clothes,” states Zeydal.
Shared space for The Core and retail brands
The Core has become a permanent area for featuring Turkish design talent, established as well as emerging designers alike. At this edition, The Core with 24 participating designers took center stage in Hall 7, flanked by half the number of Turkish retail brands like Damat, Twist, İpekyol, Naramaxx, Kiğli and others.
Among the designers were IFCO veterans like Arzu Kaprol, Meltem Özbek, Mehmet Emiroğlu and Tugba Ergin as well as new entries like Belma Özdemir, Emre Erdemoğlu, Gökhan Yavaş and Mert Erkan. “By positioning TheCore as an exhibition rather than just a sales space, the project showcased the strength of Turkish fashion design globally and gave the fair a fresh vision,” commented designer Gökhan Yavaş whose eponymous brand blends streetwear energy with a refined design sensibility.
While the first day was busy and visitors were able to meet designers at their booths, by the third day, the area seemed deserted with merely the designers’ visiting cards on site and the booths manned by their assistants.
The Turkish brands were happy with their location. “A special area for brands is a great opportunity to promote Türkiye. Participation was fruitful with strong visitor numbers. The dedicated brands hall provided added prestige and international exposure,” stated Ali Bülent Alp, general manager at Naramaxx.
İpekyol and İHKİB board member Nejdet Ayaydın stressed the long-term vision: “Currently, there are 12 to14 brands, but our goal is to bring Türkiye’s top 30 brands to the fair and set an example both for Türkiye and the world.”
Luxury menswear brand Damat had a prominent location in Hall 8, right at the entrance, and captured visitors’ attention with two mannequins that were running all three days of the show, demonstrating that you can wear the brand’s suits under extreme conditions and they will not wrinkle. “This is the trend nowadays - clothing has to be chic but also comfortable and practical,” explained Nihat Onuk, the brand’s international business development director.
He was happy with the exposure and the traffic at the fair; after all, Damat has been participating for the last two years. The company has been able to manage the challenges that the industry has been facing - inflation, less favourable exchange rates and an increase in overheads - due its long history and experience. Damat was founded in 1986 by Orka Holding, together with Tween, the label for bold, sophisticated and contemporary menswear; trendy and more affordable ready-to-wear brand D’S Damat followed in 2002.
KOZA Young Fashion Designers Competition
The winning designs of the KOZA Young Fashion Designers Competition were prominently on display in the foyer of the exhibition. The competition, organised by İHKİB since 1992, is dedicated to discovering and supporting emerging Turkish talent. In fact, many leading designers began their careers through KOZA.
On view at IFCO were the ten finalists of the 23rd KOZA Young Fashion Designers Competition: Lamia Duran, Selçuk Durdu, Taha Erdem Ömeroğlu, Ahmet Can Hızlı, Umut Kaya, Sude Keskin, Mehmet Melih Sevinç, Levent Tirki, Gülnihal Uluçay and Ece Zikguş.
Winner Sude Keskin drew inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. For her collection, she researched Victorian-era silhouettes for men and adapted them to modern times by blending them with feminine forms and challenging strict gender roles.
Runner-up Umut Kaya’s collection portrays the tragic love story of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, and Nancy, one of the iconic punk couples of the 1970s. Yet it goes beyond punk aesthetics, interweaving it with Turkish culture such as Cintemani motifs of Ottoman art and Kündekari (Ottoman Turkish geometric joinery art) to reinterpret the narrative from a local perspective.
Ahmet Can Hızlı won third place and convinced the jury with a creation from his “Love Me As I Am” collection, which aims to redefine the rigid moulds that classic menswear is confined to, drawing inspiration from the style of arabesque music.
The large, voluminous forms symbolise the spirit of struggle and resistance through socioeconomic hardships, while also expressing a rebelling against entrenched perceptions of masculinity. The colour palette brings emotional depth to the forefront.
Finalist Lamia Duran’s collection was inspired by her grandmother’s porcelain pieces. By bringing together their opposing characteristics - elegance, sophistication and durability on one hand and fragility and delicacy on the other, the young designer aimed to create refined and striking patterns. Duran used placement print as well as placement embroidery techniques for refined details and meticulous craftsmanship.
Trend zone
The IMA Trend Area was spread over more space than in previous editions. The four themes - Intumotion, Ether Look, Fantasmic and Subcore - were stretched out across the length of Hall 8, leading to the seminar and fashion show area. The expansion and tunnel-like look was done on purpose: “If you remember, this area used to be like one stand with all trends. Now, this is more like a tunnel and portal, actually more like a spiritual road,” explained IMA trend researcher and co-curator Melis Karapança Örün when speaking to FashionUnited.
The concept of Be:coming demonstrates the trail of becoming and transformation while shedding light on the future of fashion. “It is like being human and the stages when we are young and then we become adults, the whole cycle,” adds Karapança Örün.
Formed around intuition, emotion, cultural memory and play, Be:coming emphasises this ever-evolving nature of identity through four themes: Intumotion with meditative luxury, Ether Look with back-to-the-roots contemporary craft, Fantasmic with the theatrical convergence of dream and reality, and Subcore bringing the free energy of digital gaming to the runway.
“The concept is related with the psychology of this cycle. It starts more minimal and raw, goes into more ethnic vibes and craft, which refers to our rules. Then, it becomes more fantastic, like our dreams and inspirations, and ends with more pop, athletic, like the more athleisure side of fashion for a young and new generation,“ sketches Karapança Örün the evolution of the four themes, which took eight months from conceptualisation to finished installation.
On the materials side, which are laid out on the tables, there is a clear progression too. “While Intumotion starts from the raw materials, leaving anything industrialised and going for more organic, Ether Look becomes more crafty and ethnic with primitive periods and different kinds of cultures whereas Fantasmic goes for the nostalgic and dramatic, closing with Subcore with the pop and hype of today,” explains Karapança Örün.
Intumotion is the art of trusting the soul before the mind. In a hyper-connected world, overflowing with information, the theme embraces inner rhythm over external noise. … Fashion becomes an extension of intuition. Shapes, cuts and materials are designed not for spectacle but for resonance to move with the body; to breathe with it. Here, the silhouette is not constructed, it’s lived.
Ether Look is a celebration of traditional knowledge, shaped be inherited knowledge, symbolic traditions and the deeper meaning embedded in ceremonial dress, craftsmanship and spiritual adornment. … This is fashion as ritual language; garments that shield, heal, bless and align. Natural fibres, hand-dyeing, embroidery and layering become sacred gestures.
Fantasmic is high drama through a surrealist lens. It channels the grandeur of history, operatic silhouettes, regal rituals and the opulence of costume… This is where historic elegance meets modern fantasy. Feminine icons, goddesses, witches, warriors and divas are reinterpreted through textured tulle, structured brocade, pearl-detailed corsets and soft, time-washed silks.
Subcore is the quiet revolution of depth where style in a performance but a code, an inner frequency. … This theme rejects spectacle in favour of intimacy. It suggests that resilience can be subtle, identity can be layered and softness can be engineered. Every garment becomes a kind of mental architecture, sleek on the surface but complex in construction.
The Turkish apparel industry in numbers
After automotive and chemistry sector, apparel is Turkey’s third largest export sector. While Turkey’s overall export volume increased by 2.5 percent to almost 262 billion US dollars in 2024, its apparel export volume decreased by 6.9 percent to 17.9 billion US dollars. The reason being reduced demand in several major markets, changing consumer preferences globally and a “challenging year” for both the country’s apparel and textile industry.
In terms of markets, the EU accounted more than 62 percent of all apparel exports, or 6 billion US dollars of 9.7 billion US dollars total from January to July 2025. In 2024, Turkey was the EU’s third largest apparel supplier after China and Bangladesh with 10.4 billion euros in export value.
Within Europe, Germany remained the largest market with1.62 billion US dollars in exports, followed by the Netherlands (1.2 billion US dollars), Spain (970.9 million US dollars), UK (801.5 million US dollars) and France (540.4 million US dollars).
Poland, Iraq and Kazakhstan stand out as growth markets during this period, with increases of 13.7, 3.8 and 19.9 percent to 323.1, 301.3 and 262.4 million US dollars, respectively. The reasons being overcoming recession and generally developing while successful participation of 57 Turkish companies in an exhibition in Kazakhstan boosted trade.
Globally, Turkey was the sixth largest apparel exporter after China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and India. The high inflation that has been plaguing the country in recent years is expected to decline soon, reaching around 24 percent by the end of the year according to the treasury and finance minister. If it will reach one digit by next year as some expected at the fair remains to be seen.